Monday, July 14, 2014

Summertime Survival

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Hot Shot® Insecticides.

It’s not that I don’t like summer. All winter long, I whine about the cold and dream of all the fun summertime things I can’t wait to do. But once it actually arrives, I sit around all hot and sweaty and uncomfortable and start dreaming of fall and pumpkin muffins and hot chocolate and cozy sweaters (environmentalists, please close your eyes and do not read the following statement where I confess to sometimes cranking up the AC at home on hot days so I can wear slippers and cardigans and sip hot chocolate, because I’d hate for you to be upset at me). As far as seasons go, summer is #3 out of 4 in my lineup. I’ve made an effort this year, though, to try and make summer a little more fun for everyone. Because, as you know, I am the Queen of Fun as well as the World’s Coolest Mom (an impressive double title, I know, and I always aim to impress you here). Here are a few simple, low-budget things we’re doing to make our summer enjoyable:

Plan at-home activities. I’m a major homebody, and it’s really easy for me to just turn on movies for Forrest while I read or crochet, and the next thing I know, it’s time to put him in bed for the night and he’s literally spent his whole day in front of the TV. I’m certainly not some amazing at-home educator planning daily activities for Forrest, but I’ve tried to come up with a handful of things that can keep him happy and busy and limit the amount of time he spends parked on his caboose in front of the TV.

They don’t have to be big activities that take a ton of preparation or time or money. In fact, I’m the happiest when they take very little preparation, time, and money. A few days ago, when he was pestering me relentlessly about watching TV, we went into the kitchen and made a batch of salt dough together for him to play with.

It took 5 minutes (if that) to make, used ingredients we already had, and kept him entertained for hours. Planning little at-home activities like this have helped keep us both happier, since they give him something fun and creative to do, and they don’t cost me much money or energy. Not to mention playing with salt dough is pretty dang fun. Can’t say I’ve gotten my hands messy with salt dough in, oh, probably 20 years. It’s about time I gave it a go again.

Get outside. A no-brainer for those of you who are not boring homebody couch potatoes, but for boring homebody couch potatoes like me, it’s incredibly easy to look back on my week and realize I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve left the house in the week, with fingers to spare. I think we’re all a little happier when we get out, whether we’re heading to the library to pick up some books for the week, or running errands, or even just going out in the backyard to play. A $20 inflatable pool from Walmart has more than paid for itself with hours upon hours upon hours upon hoursuponhoursuponhoursetc of outdoor play for these two. That was $20 well spent. Well spent, indeed.

Exercise. I’m far from any sort of athlete (I like to blame my mom for this, since she never forced me to participate in any sort of sports as an impressionable young child, and she likes to remind me that she tried countless times to sign me up for sports teams and camps and I wholeheartedly refused to participate), but we’ve been having a lot of fun heading outside for walks and jogs and bike rides as a family (to be clear: Jeff is the only one who jogs. If he insists on a jog, I ride a bike alongside him. A runner I am not, and never shall be.).

I can’t say I love exercising, in general, but it’s a lot easier to talk yourself into a workout when you’re doing it as a family and it feels less like work and more like you’re just playing around outside together. Jeff just restored the above bike for me for my birthday (he’s pretty cool), and we’ve had so much fun getting out and riding together. And since we just bought a used bike trailer from a friend for the kids to ride in, I’m really excited to take them on some little rides to the library and the playground.

Kill dem bugs. Forrest and I are both stricken with an irrational fear of bugs. It’s a little over the top. Example: we were playing outside the other day and I spotted him standing completely still, frozen in a sort of weird position with a look of absolute horror on his face. As I tried to figure out what he was doing, he let out the most bloodcurdling horror movie scream I’ve ever heard, and started sobbing and begging for me to help him, all without moving a muscle. All because . . . there was a spider on his leg. Not even a particularly big or gross or scary one. Just your run-of-the-mill, average little spider. He then needed 30 minutes of snuggling while watching a movie to recover from his traumatic experience. And I can’t even blame him for his horror movie scream, as I probably would have done the same were I in his shoes. Hearts of steel in this family, I tell you. So trying to keep the bugs to a minimum is definitely a necessity around here.

I’ve been using Hot Shot® Insecticides this summer, and it has definitely helped keep things more comfortable this summer. Fewer icky creepy crawlies in my home or in the spots we like to play outside definitely makes us a happier group. Because we are wimpy and we want our bugs the way God intended them: dead and deader.

Who’s the bug-destroying hero in your house? Enter the Hot Shot® Insecticides sweepstakes on their facebook page this month!

What do you do to make your summer more fun?

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Hot Shot® Insecticides.